Love This Article!
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Article by By Mike Freeman
The Pittsburgh Steelers, as we know them, are dead.
This team is no longer great. This franchise is no longer elite. The Steelers are the Dallas Cowboys of the AFC. It's time to face the fact they're just not that good and haven't been for some time.
This franchise reeks of ineffectual, of ripe-for-the-taking. I'd take Cleveland's roster over the Steelers'. Or I'd take the Vikings', even. No, this isn't reactionary to possibly the worst regular-season loss in the recent history of the Pittsburgh franchise, the Steelers falling 27-24 to the Buccaneers on Sunday.
The Steelers, especially on the defensive side of the football, have been slipping for some time. This loss, the biggest upset of the NFL season so far, just epitomizes that disturbing fall.
I also get that the Steelers have retooled and gotten younger in spots, but they just brought back James Harrison, who is 200 years old. That speaks volumes about their young talent.
When you look at what has always made the Steelers so formidable—that defense—there are very few players you look at and say: Let's build around that dude. The Steelers aren't tough. They're not fast. They're not wise or sharp. They're an average franchise, at best, and this is what we will see from them all year.
Ben Roethlisberger has carried them, the way Tom Brady has shouldered the Patriots, despite some poor personnel decisions and shaky drafts. There is only so much Roethlisberger can do. He can't tackle. He can't hide the fact that Troy Polamalu is worse in coverage than he's ever been, that the team can't make basic plays on that side of the ball.
Mike Glennon is solid, but he's a guy Dick LeBeau, not long ago, would have sent crying to the film room. Now LeBeau is a general who has lost some of his fastball and doesn't have the talented personnel to enact even his most rudimentary commands.
Some fans will say you can't talk about the Steelers this way. They'll get angry. They'll spit and curse. Others will say the Steelers have been sliding for several years. To some degree, yes, but not this bad. You cannot tell me anyone saw this Bucs monstrosity coming. No one did.
When asking scouts and personnel around football about the Steelers following the Tampa loss, there was one general consensus, and it was something similar to what I stated before. The franchise has relied too heavily on Roethlisberger in every way.
As one scout explained, every franchise in every sport has done the same—from LeBron James to Brady to Big Ben. You think: We can cut any veteran we want and replace him with a younger, cheaper guy, because Ben will save us. We can take a chance drafting this guy because Ben will save us.
There is such a lack of discipline and an inability to do even basic things, like tackle. It's not like the Buccaneers have this abundance of slippery and great offensive players. They don't have Darren Sproles, yet there were so many times when a Buc would shake a Steeler.
The responsibility lies with Mike Tomlin, who is an excellent coach and someone who deserves respect. Still, Tomlin is a defensive-minded coach, and his defense looked horrible. And please don't mention the injured Pittsburgh starters. That would matter against the Packers. The Steelers are supposed to be plenty good enough to beat a Tampa team that was reeling.
Think back to 2010 when the Steelers won the AFC title. There was a time when Tomlin and this team could seemingly do anything. He had one of the most brilliant coaching runs of the past five or 10 years. Teams were actually scared of the Steelers.
Now, a quarterback named Mike Glennon, in just his second year, looked like he relished the chance to play Pittsburgh. He was far from scared. Glennon passed for 302 yards. The last time a Tampa quarterback threw for over 300 yards was Josh Freeman in December of 2012.
Tampa opened the third quarter with a brutal eight-play, 80-yard scoring drive. The Steelers looked helpless.
The Steelers made Mike Glennon look like Mike Fouts.
Because the Steelers, as we know them, are dead.
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Nice read....all true.....but who's Mike Fouts??
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Tomlin not only wore out Cowhers coat tails he shredded the shit out of them.
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Nice read....all true.....but who's Mike Fouts??
Dan's kid...
That whole "relying too much on the great QB to save them" angle is an interesting one. Top, expensive QBs also make it harder to add/ retain other top talent. Brady seems like an even more obvious example than Ben.
Trying to think of others... now and past.
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I did a preseason 26 (including special teams) position by position analysis of the talent of all 4 teams in the AFCN.
Ranking each player 1-4 the Steelers had the fewest players ranked at #1 (BR plus I think one other player) and they had the most players ranked #4.
The fact is that the Steelers have the least talent in the division, and they do rely on BR to do too much. Sometimes that reliance works (like week 1 vs. the Browns). Sometimes it doesn't (Bucs/Ravens).
As I see it, the Steelers really, really need to keep BR healthy. if he were to go down, and they had to rely on Bruce Gradkowski at QB.....what do you think would happen? They are already at the least talented level, and without BR they would rank #4 even at the QB position (hell, they may rank #32 in the NFL then.)
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@douche-nozzle said:
You are such a fucking gluehead
Just because it stings like a bitch does not mean you have to be one...
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Lol hey Douche Nozzle, hows it feel walking the plank?
You get seasick easy?
Say hi to Captain Jack for me.
Yo ho and a bottle of rum for yourself to numb the pain
Steelers Buccanearly won it.
Your team didnt make the cutlass.
Sorry you couldn't nab the booty.
The real treasure is your worthless pride being slowly drowned in Davy Jones locker.
X marks the spot, next time in Cleveland.
See what i did there? I hope you "Arrrrrr" impressed.
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A bleacher report article? I could write one of those right now and post it on the site. Linking one is like passing off Wikipedia as a credible source for a doctoral thesis.
AKA SNATCH98 or Rorbotron. The boards glorious admins decided to get cute and change my name to "homotron" Classy group of people. (Lost a bet with Columbus king and got banned for a month) -
Nice read....all true.....but who's Mike Fouts??
Wow, stayin' on top of things Tour- though Mike never even made the pros.
A bleacher report article? I could write one of those right now and post it on the site. Linking one is like passing off Wikipedia as a credible source for a doctoral thesis.
D-nile, D-nile is creeping in. You got Ben, Brown, Timmons, a dinged Shazier. About it pal.
When you have to bring back guys like Kiesel and Harrison to "bolster" your defense- you're in deep shit- and you know it.
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Harrison was going to retire, because NO OTHER team wanted him. The stoolers are in trouble if they are keeping guys like that around.
The Browns exposed the old/slow stollers defense.
That defense couldn't stop the Bucs from getting a game winning TD.
They are ranked 21st in points given up per game. And that's the ONLY stat that matters on defense.
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Nice read....all true.....but who's Mike Fouts??
Wow, stayin' on top of things Tour- though Mike never even made the pros.
A bleacher report article? I could write one of those right now and post it on the site. Linking one is like passing off Wikipedia as a credible source for a doctoral thesis.
D-nile, D-nile is creeping in. You got Ben, Brown, Timmons, a dinged Shazier. About it pal.
When you have to bring back guys like Kiesel and Harrison to "bolster" your defense- you're in deep shit- and you know it.
Wow, stayin' on top of things Tour- though Mike never even made the pros.
D-nile, D-nile is creeping in.
Actually I thought I was joking with the Mike Fouts comment...
Does that mean I'm smart even when I'm being funny?
Speaking of funny... (or not)...
On the whole "D-nile" thing...
Can we simply refer to it as the "4th River"?
Making Heinz the new "4-river Stadium"?
"When you have a shared vision it is a lot easier to make unpopular decisions." - Paul DePodesta "When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less." - Paul Brown Complete 2017 Browns Board Mock: http://thebrownsboard.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=46196 -
@douche-nozzle said:
You are such a fucking gluehead
If a gluehead is a person who is right on every single point that he makes, then I guess that is what I am.
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A bleacher report article? I could write one of those right now and post it on the site. Linking one is like passing off Wikipedia as a credible source for a doctoral thesis.
A bleacher report article? I could write one of those right now and post it on the site. Linking one is like passing off Wikipedia as a credible source for a doctoral thesis.
Oh ye of vast knowledge in the nether region......just where is it that you get YOUR information that is of such higher authority than the rest of us have access to?
I mean, does God talk to you? Are you the fucking Joan of Arc of football. No.
You are just a nebbish. Critical of what others contribute without contributing a cabbage fart's worth of information of your own.
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Wow, stayin' on top of things Tour- though Mike never even made the pros.
D-nile, D-nile is creeping in.
Actually I thought I was joking with the Mike Fouts comment...
Does that mean I'm smart even when I'm being funny?
Speaking of funny... (or not)...
On the whole "D-nile" thing...
Can we simply refer to it as the "4th River"?
Making Heinz the new "4-river Stadium"?
-
A bleacher report article? I could write one of those right now and post it on the site. Linking one is like passing off Wikipedia as a credible source for a doctoral thesis.
Oh ye of vast knowledge in the nether region......just where is it that you get YOUR information that is of such higher authority than the rest of us have access to?
I mean, does God talk to you? Are you the fucking Joan of Arc of football. No.
You are just a nebbish. Critical of what others contribute without contributing a cabbage fart's worth of information of your own.
Gipper I never go to bleacher nor do I ever put any kind of stock into anything written on that website. Its peer driven, opinion pieces. I get my information from my local media, the main sports sites like ESPN, twitter from scouts and beat writers and then sites like pro football focus etc. No one should put their eggs in the bleacher report basket. Any one of us could start writing their tomorrow. A concept I can appreciate as everyone has to start somewhere but no one is held to a standard or required to be even the littlest bit accurate or objective.Oh ye of vast knowledge in the nether region......just where is it that you get YOUR information that is of such higher authority than the rest of us have access to?
I mean, does God talk to you? Are you the fucking Joan of Arc of football. No.
You are just a nebbish. Critical of what others contribute without contributing a cabbage fart's worth of information of your own.
AKA SNATCH98 or Rorbotron. The boards glorious admins decided to get cute and change my name to "homotron" Classy group of people. (Lost a bet with Columbus king and got banned for a month) -
Gipper I never go to bleacher nor do I ever put any kind of stock into anything written on that website. Its peer driven, opinion pieces. I get my information from my local media, the main sports sites like ESPN, twitter from scouts and beat writers and then sites like pro football focus etc. No one should put their eggs in the bleacher report basket. Any one of us could start writing their tomorrow. A concept I can appreciate as everyone has to start somewhere but no one is held to a standard or required to be even the littlest bit accurate or objective.Oh ye of vast knowledge in the nether region......just where is it that you get YOUR information that is of such higher authority than the rest of us have access to?
I mean, does God talk to you? Are you the fucking Joan of Arc of football. No.
You are just a nebbish. Critical of what others contribute without contributing a cabbage fart's worth of information of your own.
Gipper I never go to bleacher nor do I ever put any kind of stock into anything written on that website. Its peer driven, opinion pieces. I get my information from my local media, the main sports sites like ESPN, twitter from scouts and beat writers and then sites like pro football focus etc.
In other words, you get it from the same place all the rest of us get our info. (except I don't do twitter)
No one should put their eggs in the bleacher report basket. Any one of us could start writing their tomorrow. A concept I can appreciate as everyone has to start somewhere but no one is held to a standard or required to be even the littlest bit accurate or objective.
I don't think anyone is putting any eggs in the Bleacher Report Basket. Yes, it is opinion based articles......That does not mean that they cannot be interesting articles and that is all the OP said....that it was an interesting article.
And WTF makes you think that local media isn't biased opinion? And half of what ESPN does is give opinions...biased and otherwise.
(Somehow I believe that if the BR had an article favorable to the Steelers, you would not be so quick to dismiss it.)
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Wow, stayin' on top of things Tour- though Mike never even made the pros.
D-nile, D-nile is creeping in.
Actually I thought I was joking with the Mike Fouts comment...
Does that mean I'm smart even when I'm being funny?
Speaking of funny... (or not)...
On the whole "D-nile" thing...
Can we simply refer to it as the "4th River"?
Making Heinz the new "4-river Stadium"?
Actually I thought I was joking with the Mike Fouts comment...
Does that mean I'm smart even when I'm being funny?
Speaking of funny... (or not)...
On the whole "D-nile" thing...
Can we simply refer to it as the "4th River"?
Making Heinz the new "4-river Stadium"?
On a hunch of your blind guesses...I googled 4th river. No shit this came up:
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Gipper I never go to bleacher nor do I ever put any kind of stock into anything written on that website. Its peer driven, opinion pieces. I get my information from my local media, the main sports sites like ESPN, twitter from scouts and beat writers and then sites like pro football focus etc. No one should put their eggs in the bleacher report basket. Any one of us could start writing their tomorrow. A concept I can appreciate as everyone has to start somewhere but no one is held to a standard or required to be even the littlest bit accurate or objective.Oh ye of vast knowledge in the nether region......just where is it that you get YOUR information that is of such higher authority than the rest of us have access to?
I mean, does God talk to you? Are you the fucking Joan of Arc of football. No.
You are just a nebbish. Critical of what others contribute without contributing a cabbage fart's worth of information of your own.
Gipper I never go to bleacher nor do I ever put any kind of stock into anything written on that website. Its peer driven, opinion pieces. I get my information from my local media, the main sports sites like ESPN, twitter from scouts and beat writers and then sites like pro football focus etc. No one should put their eggs in the bleacher report basket. Any one of us could start writing their tomorrow. A concept I can appreciate as everyone has to start somewhere but no one is held to a standard or required to be even the littlest bit accurate or objective.
We had to run off our "Expert" Bleacher Report guy- seems he knows so much about football, us mortals weren't worthy to carry on a conversation with him. Even the higher IQ guys over on The 'Tard weren't up to his level of football intellect- so he started his own website.
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